We Paid Cash: A New HVAC System

We’ve known for several years now that our HVAC system was dying. As a family, we were all uncomfortable and the unit often reminded us of its impending “death” with loud rattling that shook walls.

Knowing that we had waited and patched the units as long as we could, we began to get quotes for a new system. When the time came to receive our first quote I almost fell out of my chair when they handed me the paperwork showing a total cost of $12,000 to replace both our units and repair the duct work.

This company did however offer financing, and it looked like we might have to utilize the “financing option” to purchase the new HVAC system.

After a few more quotes and some discussions with the companies I started asking if we could get a discount if we paid in cash. To my shock, we were quickly offered discounts from 5-8% if we paid in cash! On a $12,000 bill that is not an insignificant amount of money.

With this new knowledge in hand, we put our nose to the ground and decided to save, save, save! We had less than one year to save before we would face another blistering summer in Georgia.

Here is what we did:

We held a family meeting

We examined our budget

We cut expenses on “non-essential” items

We planned to put our entire tax return to the new system

Our children are old enough to understand our budget and the need to replace the HVAC unit (they were hot!) After the family meeting, everyone was on the same page and we were all on board to save up for a more comfortable summer next year.

Already having a tight budget, at first we thought we would never be able to save enough, but soon, small decisions started adding up. Every time we saved any amount from a monthly bill, we diverted those funds directly into savings.

Because our budget was already tight we called our service providers for cell phones and internet and negotiated lower rates. The difference went straight to savings every month, we decreased the “food” budget which meant less eating out and we had very simple holidays. Soon we were on track to make our goal!

This weekend, we will have our new system installed and we will be paying CASH!

Our new HVAC system will cost us $8,000 — by paying cash and having the work completed before summer we were able to negotiate the best price, saving us $4,000. What a great feeling we have as a family to know that we all worked together to achieve our goal and we all be cooler this summer!

That is an amazing discount, I am impressed. If others are thinking of doing the same thing, I suggest in the year or so you save money, put your AC on a “leash” by (a) having a programmable thermostat; (b) setting it to 78 degrees in the day and 73 degrees at night; (c) use a ceiling or floor fan for spot cooling.